According to a new study by ABI Research, the market of GPS-enabled mobile phones will experience a rapid growth in the next five years. This market is projected to deliver more than $50 billion next year and will double in 2012 to reach $100 billion.

In terms of units, shipments of GPS-enabled handsets will reach 240 million in 2008 and will expand to 550 million in 2012.

The ongoing consolidation in the mobile industry is viewed as a strong driver of growth. Nokia’s acquisition of navigation company NAVTEQ is an indication of the handset manufacturer’s direction to make GPS a standard mobile phone feature.

Aside from Nokia, several other player navigation companies were recently acquired. CSR took over NordNav Technologies and Cambridge Positioning Systems while Broadcom acquired of Global Locate. Moreover, the ongoing scuffle between 2 navigation companies Garmin and TomTom over Tele Atlas further confirms the importance of GPS in the near future.

This consolidation is just one of the growth drivers. Another factor is low cost. Chipset manufacturers have already developed the technology improve the accuracy of GPS and integrate it to mobile phones at a very competitive cost. Additionally, mobile vendors have shown growing interest in GPS and other GPS-centric applications.

While the growth will come mostly from big players like Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola, small handset manufacturers like HTC and Quanta are also adding GPS features in their recent and upcoming mobile phones.

There’s no doubt iPhone is one of the coolest mobile phones every created in this universe. What many iPhone users don’t find cool is its outrageous bills for checking emails and net surfing while outside the U.S. In fact some owners were billed $3,000 just for these services.

To pacify these disgruntled customers, AT&T has announced 2 flat-rate international data plans applicable in 29 countries including Mexico, Canada, China, and selected areas in Europe and Asia.

The least expensive international data plan costs $25 per month, which allows users 20 MB of data monthly to check websites, emails, and other info in the countries included. If the country you’re visiting is not included in the list, the rate for data usage is $.0195/KB and excess usage is charged with $.005/KB.

For frequentl travelers, there’s another plan worth $60 per month, which is equivalent to 50 MB of data each month. If the country is not included, the data usage rate is $.010/KB while excess usage is charged with $.005/KB.

Unfortunately, AT&T has emphasized this option is not a standalone offer. Customers must have domestic voice and data plan for the iPhone. It also warns customers to check the options prior to travel, so customers won’t get any heart attack when the next phone bill arrives.

Still, the rates are not very competitive compared to other services. A better alternative is to buy a cheap or disposable phone to use in that country. Alas, you just can’t buy any SIM card because iPhone can’t be legally unlocked.

Via GigaOM

If you are an AT&T mobile subscriber, you’ll be glad to know about the launch of My Media Net, a PC-based browser that allows AT&T clients to create and update their mobile web interface in the comforts of their PCs.

My Media Net will make designing your wireless home page such a breeze since you will be working in an environment which is so familiar to you, your PC’s screen. What’s more, AT&T will not charge you for accessing My Media Net. Now that’s what I call value added service.

From the words of Mark Collins, vice president, consumer data for AT&T’ s wireless unit, “With the new Web-based tool, customers can now customize directly on their handsets through AT&T’s Media Net portal or through a PC.”

My Media Net allows you to add web content into your mobile web’s portal. Be it scores of your favorite team, breaking news, stock quotes or weather updates, you can freely choose which one to include and which to drop from your mobile web portal.

Now, here’s the best part. My Media Net is synchronized with what is displayed in your mobile web portal. So, you can immediately how a customization would actually display on your mobile phone. You’ll even receive a confirmation message in your mobile phone to verify whether you want to continue with the update or you want to cancel.

Since, the customization happens on a PC browser, modifying your mobile web portal is as easy as dragging and dropping widgets. If you are familiar with web start page services such as iGoogle, Pageflakes and others, you would definitely have no hard time using My Media Net.

My Media Net is a fun and nifty tool that you can try out in your AT&T subscribed mobile phones. It’s a free service so you’ll not have to worry about ballooning mobile charges later on.

Welcome to the Phone-Guide. If you are looking for the old version of the site, rest assured that we’ll have it back up and working, with links from the new navigation.

We’ve added a “communications blog” that will be covering the following topics:

• Communications technology in general.
• Phones, wireless phones.
• Cellular/ mobile phones.
• Cellular plans.
• Mobile marketing.
• Mobile payments
• VoIP phones.
• VoIP technology.
• VoIP providers.
• VoIP plans.
• Calling cards.
• Callback plans.

There will be less emphasis on callback plans than before.